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In this issue...

• Forgotten 1962 song by Connie Francis makes comeback thanks to viral usage on TikTok

• Outspoken Broadway star Patti Lupone reins in her ego after being battered by critics

• By the numbers X 10 + 1

• Who knew? The puzzle industry is being stressed out by the global trade war!

• CBC Radio's Under the Influence: Marketing to people with disabilities

• Father's Day is on Sunday, June 15

• Before you go: 7 things you may have missed in the news

• Enjoy the outdoors with the Greater Moncton Walking Group

• My latest book: The Hump Day Collection - Volume 1

• Buy them now! Acadian Recipes and More - Volumes 1, 2 & 3, and Forgotten Recipes - Volume 1

... and trivia, quotes and more!

Forgotten 1962 song by Connie Francis makes comeback thanks to viral usage on TikTok

As they say, "Everything old is new again...", especially if you're too young to have been around the first time. In this case, TikTok has revived an old song by famous singer Connie Francis, whose 1962 Pretty Little Baby has found an entirely new audience thanks to its use in a viral trend. And no one is as surprised as Connie Francis! In fact, she didn't even remember recording the song, which appeared on her album "Connie Francis Sings 'Second Hand Love'" but was never released as a single.

Article excerpt: "In 1960, Connie Francis became the first woman to score a No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 - and now she’s topping TikTok.

Her 1962 song Pretty Little Baby has gone viral on the short-form social media platform, where millions have lip-synced to its feel-good lyrics while showing off their children, pets or fashion game. To date, it’s racked up more than 10 billion views, sending it to No. 1 on both TikTok’s Viral 50 and Top 50 charts. 

It’s an impressive achievement for a relatively obscure entry in the pop queen's canon. Songs like Stupid Cupid, Lipstick on Your Collar, Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool, and Who’s Sorry Now made her a legend, but Pretty Little Baby wasn’t even released as a single all those years ago. 

'To tell you the truth, I didn't even remember the song!' she tells People exclusively. 'I had to listen to it to remember. To think that a song I recorded 63 years ago is touching the hearts of millions of people is truly awesome. It is an amazing feeling.'"

Click here (YouTube link) to listen to Pretty Little Baby in its entirely. Click here (YouTube link) to watch a video using the song.

Click here (YouTube link) to watch her sing Everybody's Somebody's Fool on the Ed Sullivan Show. This is the song that made her the first woman to hit #1 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart in 1960.

Read: Connie Francis admits she "didn't remember' her 1962 song Pretty Little Baby before its TikTok comeback. Related: Little known song from the 1960s hits the charts for the first time after going viral on TikTok.

Outspoken Broadway star Patti Lupone reins in her ego after being battered by critics

The term "outspoken" when used next to a celebrity's name can often be interpreted as "difficult" or "impossible". Broadway star Patti Lupone is likely no stranger to this term - but she finally realized that her legendary ego and "outspokenness" went too far recently when the Broadway community turned against her after yet another one of her "I'm-just-being-honest" moments. It looked good on her to finally show a bit of humility, something that is rare for her.

Talented? Yes. Amazing, in fact. Would I pay to see one of her shows? Absolutely. But oh my God... she's difficult to like when you see her on talk shows and being interviewed. The ego is just on another planet. I get that you can't live your life worrying about what others think of you, but when you anger EVERYONE, you may want to look at yourself in the mirror.

Article excerpt: "Patti LuPone apologized to fellow actresses Kecia Lewis and Audra McDonald on Saturday after her comments towards them in a New Yorker article led to over 500 Broadway professionals condemning her actions.

'For as long as I have worked in the theatre, I have spoken my mind and never apologized. That is changing today,' the Tony-winning actress shared on Instagram.

'I am deeply sorry for the words I used during the New Yorker interview, particularly about Kecia Lewis, which were demeaning and disrespectful,' she continued. 'I regret my flippant and emotional responses during the interview, which were inappropriate, and I am devastated that my behavior has offended others and has run counter to what we hold dear in this community. I hope to have the chance to speak to Audra and Kecia personally to offer my sincere apologies.'

'I wholeheartedly agree with everything that was written in the open letter shared yesterday. From middle school drama clubs to professional stages, theatre has always been about lifting each other up and welcoming those who feel they don’t belong anywhere else,' LuPone concluded her message. 'I made a mistake, I take full responsibility for it and I am committed to making this right. Our entire theatre community deserves better.'

The Agatha All Along star’s apology comes five days after she said Gypsy Tony nominee McDonald was not a friend, while adding of Hell’s Kitchen lead Lewis: 'Don’t call yourself a vet, bitch.'"

I'm not sure bragging about never having apologized before is something to be proud of. We all say things we shouldn't have - and if you're a celebrity whose done countless interviews, you've probably said a few things you regret or that need correcting.

No matter how talented you are, people will only take so much of your unmitigated egotistical bullsh-t before turning on you. Sounds like that happened to Ms. Lupone. And, quite frankly, it's about time she got the message that she can't get away with everything that comes out of her mouth. At least she had the self-awareness to realize that she'd gone too far.

Read: Patti LuPone apologizes to Kecia Lewis, Audra McDonald: "Our entire theatre community deserves better."

By the numbers X 10 + 1

• 1. 2-year-old prodigy joins "High IQ" club Mensa as youngest member ever

• 2. 4 steps to successfully navigate power dynamics at work

• 3. Taylor Swift buys back the rights to the master recordings of her first 6 albums

• 4. A fake Facebook event disguised as a math problem has been one of its top posts for 6 months

• 5. You have 8 weeks to save your inactive Samsung account

• 6. The 17 best volumizing shampoos for full, bouncy hair, according to hairstylists

• 7. 20 TV shows that wrote actor's deaths into the scripts

• 8. The new retirement is no retirement: Baby boomers are keeping jobs well into their 60s and 70s because they "like going to work"

• 9. Overwhelmed by scammers? You're not alone. 96% of Americans are targeted every week.

• 10. Read the rainbow: 135 new LGBTQ+ books to celebrate Pride

• Bonus: 5 tea garden plants to grow this summer (video)

Who knew? The puzzle industry is being stressed out by the global trade war!

The harmful tariffs being imposed by the United States on the world impact mostly every industry, but sometimes I shake my head at the amount of unnecessary damage being done. Even grandma's puzzles are being impacted. Peaceful, relaxing puzzles!

Article excerpt: "Puzzle people are used to putting pieces in their place. But the chaos of the Canada-U.S. trade war is flipping the industry over, leaving business owners to pick up the pieces. 

'It's the uncertainty. It's nearly impossible to navigate,' Bruce Donnelly told Day 6. 

Donnelly is the owner of Puzzles Canada, based in Georgetown, Ont. It's one of the largest puzzle retailers in Canada, stocking 92 jigsaw brands and thousands of different puzzles. It ships thousands of them each week. 

But the current trade war has taken a sizable piece out of those orders. And with continued uncertainty around tariffs, many puzzle retailers on both sides of the border are worried about the future of their businesses. 

The Toy Association, a lobby group for the U.S. toy industry, surveyed 400 of its member companies in April. It found that nearly half of its small or medium-sized businesses were worried they may go out of business because of their government's tariffs."

With the current occupant of the White House, it's most likely futile to hope for an end to this tariff madness, but there's never zero hope, I guess. Let's just hope there's something to salvage when all this is over. Puzzles aren't exactly the "enemy of the people", now, are they?

Read: How the peaceful world of puzzles has been upended by the global trade war.

CBC Radio's Under the Influence: Marketing to people with disabilities

The latest episode of CBC Radio's Under the Influence series with host Terry O'Reilly explored marketing to people with disabilities. You'll be surprised at some of the innovations that we all use today as companies became more open-minded. Case in point... the closed captions shown in the above photo.

• June 5, 2025 - Yes I Can: Marketing to People with Disabilities: "This week, we explore how advertisers market to people with disabilities. Disabled people are usually ignored in advertising campaigns, yet people with disabilities control half a trillion dollars in spending money. We’ll look at four powerful campaigns that not only feature people with disabilities, but these commercials are disrupting the public’s negative perceptions of the disabled." Click here to listen to the episode.

Click here for the show's website and here for the show's podcast archive.

Father's Day is Sunday, June 15

Father's Day is on Sunday, June 15! Here are some links to help you get ready for the day put aside for honouring good ol' Dad:

• 1. 5 stylish Father's Day gift ideas

• 2. 12 unique gifts for Father’s Day that Dad will love

• 3. If your dad is hard to shop for, try one of these 12 practical Father’s Day gifts

• 4. 40 Father’s Day gifts he'll wanna brag about

• 5. 41 practical Father’s Day gifts with results that are nothing short of a miracle

• 6. The best Father’s Day gifts under $25

• 7. The Verge’s 2025 Father’s Day gift guide

• 8. The ultimate Father’s Day gift guide for every budget

• 9. A Father’s Day fashion gift guide to spoil the men in our lives

• 10. Father's Day gift ideas: Unique buys for your dad

Before you go: 7 things you may have missed in the news

• 1. M*A*S*H actress Loretta Swit dies aged 87 (see photo)

• 2. Jonathan Joss: King of the Hill and Parks and Rec actor shot dead

• 3. Number of people from Canada flying to the U.S. plunges in April: StatCan report

• 4. Expect a long summer of wildfire smoke for North America

• 5. Faizan Zaki wins Scripps National Spelling Bee a year after coming in 2nd

• 6. The Apprentice, Canada’s Drag Race among big winners at Canadian Screen Awards

• 7. TikTok blocks searches for extreme thinness 'skinnytok' hashtag

Trivia: Did you know?

Actress Mae Questel, who starred as addle-brained Aunt Bethany in the classic holiday movie National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989), was also the voice of vintage cartoon character Betty Boop from 1931 to 1938. Click here to watch The Impractical Joker (1937) to listen to some of Questel's work as Betty Boop. Click here for clips of Questel in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.

Quotes of note

• 1. "People do not believe lies because they have to, but because they want to."

- Malcolm Muggeridge (1903-1990), British journalist (shown in photo)

• 2. "I hated every minute of training, but I said, 'Don't quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion." 

- Muhammad Ali

• 3. "The only thing better than singing is more singing."

- Ella Fitzgerald

• 4. "For me, singing sad songs often has a way of healing a situation. It gets the hurt out in the open into the light, out of the darkness."

- Reba McEntire

• 5. "When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around."

- Willie Nelson

• 6. "Crying wolf is a real danger. "

- David Attenborough

• 7. "Success is having to worry about every damn thing in the world, except money."

- Johnny Cash

• 8. "When your mother asks, ‘Do you want a piece of advice?’ it is a mere formality. It doesn’t matter if you answer yes or no. You’re going to get it anyway."

- Erma Bombeck

• 9. “If my boss knew how unproductive I am on Fridays, he wouldn’t want me here either.”

- James Johnson

• 10. "You know you’re getting old when you stoop to tie your shoelaces and wonder what else you could do while you’re down there."

- George Burns

Enjoy the outdoors with the Greater Moncton Walking Group

In June, the walking group is in Mapleton Park with meet-up in the Rotary Lodge parking lot off Mapleton Road.

The group meets for walks every Tuesday and Thursday at 8:30 a.m. New participants are always welcome! For more information, please contact Wayne Harrigan at 506-386-2187 or via email.

My latest book: The Hump Day Collection - Volume 1

I'm thrilled to announce that The Hump Day Collection - Volume 1 is now available for purchase through Amazon in ebook or paperback (300+ pages) format. The book contains 75 updated and revised Hump Day stories that ran for many years in a local newspaper. I've been asked many times to put these in book format, so I'm hoping you'll like it! For ebook lovers, the book is part of the Kindle Unlimited subscription-based program from Amazon. To purchase today:

• Chapters (Dieppe NB location)

• Amazon Canada: amzn.to/4gckiQX

• Amazon USA: amzn.to/3CnKfiF

Buy them now! Acadian Recipes and More - Volumes 1, 2 & 3, and Forgotten Recipes - Volume 1

My three volumes of Acadian recipe books (English and French) and Forgotten Recipes - Volume 1 are out now and make a great addition to your recipe book library or a gift for someone else! They are available on Amazon Canada, Amazon USA and in some local retail outlets in Southeastern New Brunswick:

• Chapters (Dieppe) (Volumes 1-3, Forgotten Recipes)

• Le P'tit Coin Acadien Poutine Râpée (Bouctouche) (Volumes 1-3, Forgotten Recipes)

• Jean Coutu Pharmacy (Champlain Street, Dieppe) (Volumes 1-3)

• Monument-Lefebvre (Memramcook) (Volumes 1-2)

About this newsletter

Brian Cormier's Weekly Update is distributed weekly from September to June. If you're reading this newsletter online and want to subscribe, please email me, fill out the subscription form on my website, or subscribe via the "Join Our Email List" button at the top of the newsletter (if you're viewing this in a browser.) This newsletter is not published in July and August and on holidays.